The Jimlíkov kaolin deposit is one of the sources of raw material for the smelting plant in Božičany. It is located in the west of the so-called Karlovy Vary kaolin area, which extends between the towns of Chodov, Karlovy Vary and Ostrov. The individual deposits lie at the edges of the Sokolov Basin in places where they have been protected from denudation and at the same time the thickness of the tertiary cover is not yet such as to make mining impossible.As a raw material base for the porcelain industry, kaolin deposits have been of extraordinary importance for the economic development of the region since the mid-19th century. Floated kaolin is used in the production of porcelain, ceramic tiles and wall tiles, in the chemical, glass and paper industries and elsewhere.Also at the Jimlíkov deposit, residual kaolin is a useful component, which smoothly transitions into the parent mountain granite towards the subsoil. Over the decades of mining, the western part of the deposit has been completely mined. The open-pit mine is flooded and waste sand from the kaolin smelting plant is being deposited in a large pile at its edge. East of the road to Mírové, kaolin mining continues.
Photo 1: Kaolin mine Jimlíkov near Nová Role. Stop on the GEOtrasa in Bohemia
Photo 2: Kaolin deposit Jimlíkov. In the background, Tertiary brown coal sediments of the Josef seam
Photo 3: The mined southern part of the Jimlíkov deposit. The kaolin overburden contains dark coal sediments of the Josef seam and massive quartzites, which were broken into blocks using the technique